Netanyahu’s Memorable Mistakes False bomb threats against French airports came from Switzerland

The decision has in fact been taken, but so far there has been no major ground offensive by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of Israeli soldiers, tanks and other military equipment are awaiting orders for deployment at the border in the south of the country.

The fact that they have not yet entered the Gaza Strip is due to several factors. One of these is apparently the request of the American president: Joe Biden expressed his concerns about a regional fire in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

The Israeli Prime Minister is in a dilemma. On the one hand, it must remain binding on the outside world and always heed the warnings from the West, which warn of too many civilian casualties. On the other hand, he must show strength, ensure that the promise of his country is never left in the hands of terrorists – while at the same time diverting attention from the pressing questions that concern him personally:

Why did Israel’s intelligence services fail so miserably before the October 7 terrorist attack? Why hasn’t the government better prepared the country for such an attack?

The processing of these questions is still in the early stages in Israel. But it is already clear that Netanyahu is in a political ejection seat. And the later the ground offensive begins, the more the debate about the question of guilt in Israel gains momentum.

The Israeli leadership was caught off guard

This is not about who is responsible for the terrorist attack, because the perpetrator is clear: Hamas. The Islamists alone are responsible for crossing the border and indiscriminately killing Israeli civilians on October 7.

But the military perspective is not sufficient to prevent terror in the long term. The Israeli debate is also about protecting the country from terrorist attacks and removing the breeding ground for terrorism – especially in the Gaza Strip.

That is why his critics in Israel blame Netanyahu for failures before the terrorist attack. It is said that he and his right-wing extremist coalition partners are responsible for this war. Of course, a large portion of people in Israel consider Hamas a dangerous terrorist organization. However, there is no doubt among the Israeli population that the Israeli army is in fact so strong that it should prevent such attacks.

The Hamas attack did not come as a surprise after more than seventy years of conflict in the Middle East – unlike, for example, the September 11, 2001 attack on the US. On the contrary: Israel has been under constant fire since its founding in 1948, has to defend itself and is therefore often well prepared.

But not this time. The fact that this defense was unsuccessful puts Netanyahu in the line of fire at home.

There are several reasons for the criticism:

No interest in a political solution

In recent months and years, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have become increasingly radical, which is likely to have given Hamas further support. The Israeli Prime Minister is partly responsible for this. The 74-year-old is considered an opponent of a two-state solution because he sees that Israeli security interests are endangered by a Palestinian state with six million inhabitants.

Netanyahu’s strategy in dealing with the Palestinians has always been: divide and rule. The more the Palestinian Authority around Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip fight each other, the better it is for Israel. That is Netanyahu’s reading.

The Israeli government therefore managed the status quo in the Gaza Strip, without, however, developing a perspective on what should happen next to the Palestinian state. There were always ideas in Israeli politics, but they were always quickly discarded.

Israeli leaders before Netanyahu also had no interest in solutions in recent years. After 2007, Israel de facto recognized Hamas’ rule over the Gaza Strip – even though it was an ally of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. But it succeeded in undermining Palestinian aspirations for statehood. Successfully. There were also repeated negotiations with Hamas about Egypt during times of peace.

Israel had adhered to a concept that strategically planned regular phases of small conflicts. There was often war, Hamas fired rockets, Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip, Israel cut off the money supply to the Palestinians, but then reopened it again and again. These were bloody clashes that people in the region seemed to have grown accustomed to – despite the terror. Forty years ago, Netanyahu declared that peace could be made with the Arab states without resolving the issue with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu Ensnares Extremist Forces

This interest in a political solution has diminished even further in recent years. After his election victory in November 2022, Netanyahu forged a coalition of ultra-Orthodox, national-religious settlers and politicians from his own right-wing populist Likud party.

It is clear that the situation surrounding the Gaza Strip cannot be a permanent solution; the violence continues to escalate. But Netanyahu seemed mainly interested in retaining power. If he loses this, he will have to fear accusations of corruption. But to maintain this, he has become the driving force of the right-wing religious forces in his government.

The consequences are devastating: Israel does not officially annex areas in the West Bank, but money flows to ultra-Orthodox settlers. Palestinian terrorists are killing more and more civilians in the West Bank, and the Israeli army is taking increasingly tough action against them. In the spring of 2023, extremist settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Huwara, and an Israeli army commander described the attack as a “pogrom.” Bezalel Smotrich, a settler, Israel’s Minister of Finance and Minister of Civil Affairs in the Occupied Territories, then called for the “extinction of Huwara.”

Time of chaos

These reasons lead to the question why the secret services were asleep. As a result of the increasing escalation in the West Bank, more and more soldiers were moved from the Gaza border to the West Bank. Added to this was the unrest surrounding Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform, with soldiers announcing that they no longer wanted to report for duty. So Hamas struck Israel at an already chaotic time.

“Despite a number of measures, we were unfortunately unable to provide sufficient warning that would have allowed the attack to be thwarted,” Shin Bet director Ronen Bar said shortly after the Hamas terror attack. “As head of the organization, the responsibility lies with me.” Investigations will take place into this. “Now we fight.”

This statement is quite remarkable. The domestic secret service Shin-Bet and Mossad had warned in the spring that Israel was facing a catastrophe as a result of the divisions in society. Netanyahu didn’t listen; his government dismissed them as left-wing ideas.

Ultimately, it is completely unclear whether Netanyahu can survive these failures politically. The majority of Middle Eastern experts have a clear answer: no. “We are the government at the time it happened. We are responsible,” Education Minister Joaw Kisch said on Israeli television on October 12. The military is also responsible. But this voice has until now been a minority within the Israeli government.